Mirror of Mysteries
Mirror of Mysteries (謎の鏡 Nazo no Kagami) is the 1st chapter of the manga illustrated by Yasuhiro Kanō. Order of Character Appearences Tetsu Harisugawa Mao Satomi Saki Matsukawa Juri Misaki Synopsis In a pitch black surroundings, a young man gazes through a small light to see a girl in her underwear. Ever since Harisugawa was in Elementary School, he couldn't take his eyes off a girl named Mao who went to same school as him. One day, he witnesses that Mao is almost run over by a speeding car and he kicks away her to save her. Time pass and Harisugawa is now a high school student. Mao rushes towards Saki Matsukawa to go to the class together and bumps into her. Where Saki was more worried about Mao's panties might be exposed if she runs like that. While all the boys are mesmerized by her. Mao notices Harisugawa standing behind and greets him with a bump of fist and asks if he saw her panties. To which he replies saying he didn't, and ends up having a quarrel. As Harisugawa firmly declares that he has no interest in a girl's underwear, Mao mentions that one of her friend saw him buying a swimsuit magazine when a cashier at the convenience store changed from young lady to a middle aged man. As Harisugawa tries to argue back, Mao notices his face is all puffy. When Harisugawa tries to come up with an excuse, she reminds him that he bruised the other day, and tells Harisugawa to put a cold pack and bids farewell. After Mao goes off to class, all the boys start attacking Harisugawa for being so close with her, and if it was because he is her life saver. While Harisugawa doesn't deny their accusations, there is nothing special about that making all the boys jealous of him. But Harisugawa reassures that he has no interest in her and they are just close friends. To which, his friend comments that no boys are that friendly with her, which is why all the boys who got rejected are coming after him. Recalling this morning when Ushijima of third year attacked Harisugawa after being rejected. Meanwhile, Saki asks if Mao was confessed by someone causing her to spew. Embarrassed, Mao grabs Saki's collar and asks how she found out, where Saki replies by saying that things are done to him every time that happens. While in truth, Harisugawa has a huge crush on Mao, having to study hard in order to go to the same high school with her. But he was afraid of making a confession as if he placed a clumsy hope in this, their relationship could become more awkward. Therefore, unless he is absolutely sure that it will work out, he keeps it a secret to everyone. After school, after saying goodbye to Saki, Mao notices a light shining from a thrift store and takes a peek inside. There, she notices a dusty old mirror which she ended up buying using her allowance. While she regretted doing it, when she sees Harisugawa on the other side of the streets, she rushes over to him. But Harisugawa sees that a car is about to run over Mao and jumps into save her. When the driver asks if Mao was okay, Mao was terrified thinking that Harisugawa was hit by the car. As she looks around there was no traces of Harisugawa anywhere while the driver was confuses as there was only Mao and nobody else. She calls out Harisugawa's name in vain. Scene switches to Harisugawa, who is floating in a dark surrounding. When he regains his consciousness, he goes into a state of panic, assuming if he is dead. As he lament over not being able to see Mao anymore, suddenly a large face appears before him, who yells to shut up. Shocked, Harisugawa asks who he is, where the face explains that they are inside a mirror. While Harisugawa has no idea what the face was talking about, it continues to explain that Harisugawa was sucked in here when he was on the border of life and death, and that his eyes caught the mirror at that very instant. The face continues to explain that Harisugawa can only peek at the outside world through mirrors, and that there can only be one other person who knows about the mirror's magical powers. In addition, if someone other than the two were to know about this, not only will Harisugawa won't be able to leave this place anymore, but he won't be able to peek at the outside world as well. After that, the face tells Harisugawa to figure out the rest by himself, as there are things he still doesn't know. When Harisugawa asks what will happen to him if he is stuck in here, the face replies saying that Harisugawa will become just like him. After doing his part, the face begins to shrink to a human like form and dissolves away. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Mao is in her room anxious about what happened before. Since there was no trace of Harisugawa on the road or around the car. She continues to ponder if he went straight home after knocking her out of the way. Hoping that he is alright, Mao tries to call Harisugawa's home and throws her bag on the bed, which revealed the mirror she had bought. Suddenly, a small light shines through the dark room Harisugawa was in. As he wonders what it is, he comes closer to see what is on the other side. To his shock, he sees Mao undressing herself. As he screams, Mao in turn is shocked by this and demands who was screaming. As she takes a peek at the outside wondering if it was a stalker, Harisugawa ends up seeing more of Mao's posture and ends up scream out cries. When Mao searches for where the voice came from, she takes a look at the mirror to see Harisugawa inside. While she is shaken by this, she was surprised that the mirror could do this. While Harisugawa who was never this close to Mao is dazzled by her cuteness he starts to bleed his nose. After all that, Mao tells Harisugawa to come out, he comments that he doesn't know how, and when Mao covered the mirror in order to change clothes, the window on his side vanished as well as his voice not getting out. As Harisugawa tries to continue, a bell rings on Mao's intercom, where her mother calls to inform that Saki and other friends have come. Wondering what the occasion was, Harisugawa quickly tells Mao not to talk about the mirror's power. Just as Mao puts down the mirror on the desk, Saki and friends have come over. When Mao asks why they came, Saki asks about the car accident she was in and how Harisugawa was dead. Mao replies that it was all her delusions and there is nothing to worry about. When one of the friend asks about the delusions, the other friend asks if it's the accident Mao had in elementary school, to which Mao complies. Saki mentions that it was a huge deal back then, when Mao who rarely talked to boys visited Harisugawa everyday. The girls tease if Mao decided to kill Harisugawa because she was tired of him. When one of the friend asks for a mirror to fix her eyelash, Mao shows her a dressing mirror. And as the mirror reflects the mirror Harisugawa is in, a new window appears in Harisugawa's side. As he approaches to see what he can see from there, the girl who was fixing her eyelash, screams thinking it was a ghost. Mao quickly hides the mirror Harisugawa is trapped in, in one of the bags. While the girl is still terrified about a guy appearing in the mirror. As the friends leave, Mao asks Harisugawa how he is in there now, but he doesn't know as well. He assumes that when the dressing mirror showed from the original mirror, he saw a second window appearing. When he looks back to the first window, he realize that it is gone, to which Mao tells him that she hid it in her bag. But when she checks the bag, the mirror is gone and realize that she must've put it in someone else's bag by mistake. Mao asks her friends, Juri and Misaki but none of them has it and when she calls Saki, she searches through her bag to see a mirror. As Saki swings the mirror in front of her house, various windows start popping out in Harisugawa's side. Saki decided to give a dusty old mirror a cleaning and washes it in her bathroom, but accidentally turns on the shower and gets soaking wet. So she decides to take a shower when Harisugawa was about to gaze through a new window. Thus seeing Saki in complete nude. As Harisugawa tries to suppress his instincts, he notices a light shining from the window. After Mao arrives in Saki's house, Harisugawa calls out from on of the mirrors. As Mao asks about the mirror, he tells her that it is in the bathroom. Before she could ask why, she notices that his nose was bleeding. While he tells it's nothing, just as he was about to continue, Saki's mother comes saying that Saki is taking a shower and asks Mao to wait in Saki's room. Hearing this Mao realize that Harisugawa must've peeped on Saki and gets furious. Harisugawa tries to calm her down but there's something else she needs to know. After which Mao rushed to Saki's mother and asks her to call the police and borrows the fire extinguisher and heads outside. Behind Saki's house, a man has been filming Saki taking a bath, when Mao rushes to him. As the man tries to run away, Mao uses the fire extinguisher to hold him down until the police come and take the man away. Both Saki and her mother are thankful at Mao for her help and bids farewell. But before Mao returns, she apologizes for Harisugawa who didn't have any ill intentions. Back in Mao's house, Harisugawa is trying his best to explain things to Mao, who tells him it was okay. Where Harisugawa wasn't satisfied with that as he doesn't want to be hated by Mao at all costs. While Mao talks to him that it's not her place to be mad at him as it was her fault that Harisugawa ended up trapped inside the mirror. To which Harisugawa replies that had it not been for the mirror, he would've been dead. So he should be thinking about how to get out from here. Recalling back to what the face had said. As he apologizes to Mao for dragging her into this, he asks her to lend her strength. Who was more than happy as Mao had always wanted to be the one to help Harisugawa. As the two make their bow to do their best, the two bump their fist on the mirror which cause the two to switch places.